Bourdais beat the sister Cadillac Racing entry of Pipo Derani and Philipp Eng’s BMW in the quickfire 15-minute qualifying session, ahead of this weekend’s 2h40m event that is being run for GTP and GTD machinery only.
Derani’s #31 Action Express-run Cadillac V-Series.R had taken pole in each of the trio of preceding races, but its challenge at Laguna was stymied by a vicious crash in Jack Aitken’s hands on Friday. Even so, it missed pole this time by only 0.112s.
Derani set the early pace at 1m12.658s before Bourdais (#01 Chip Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R) joined the party, producing 1m12.737s to get within 0.079s of him.
Bourdais then eclipsed Derani’s pole time by 0.027s, and then improved even further to 1m12.445s to ensure pole by a tenth with a new GTP track record.
“I kinda struggled to put a lap together,” Bourdais admitted. “I made a mistake on one, and then the last one wasn’t completely clean.”
Eng’s #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 snatched third, two tenths off pole. Mathieu Jaminet grabbed fourth with 1m12.664s in the #6 Porsche Penke Motorsport 963.
Connor De Phillippi will start fifth in the RLLR-run #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, ahead of Dane Cameron in the #7 factory Porsche.
Ricky Taylor qualified seventh in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, ahead of the sister #40 car of Louis Deletraz.
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, Corvette Z06 GT3.R, GTD PRO: Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
Corvette scores 1-2 in GTD
In GTD, Nicky Catsburg took the Pro class pole in his #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R – the first IMSA pole for this new car – with 1m20.502s and worked down to 1m19.727s.
His team-mate Antonio Garcia was three tenths slower in the sister #3 Vette, which had one of its laps deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 5.
Marvin Kirchhofer (Pfaff Motorsports McLaren 720S) was third quickest, over half a second off the pace in the McLaren MP4/4 tribute liveried car.
Jack Hawksworth was fourth in Vasser Sullivan’s #14 Pro class Lexus RC F, seven tenths off the pace, ahead of the AO Racing Porsche 911 of Seb Priaulx.
Danny Formal’s Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Lamborghini Huracan will start the pro-am class from pole.
The 2h40m race starts at 3:10pm ET on Sunday.